I think my head is about to explode…

First, I would say that with a new baby, you might want to stop thinking of it as “starting a little late,” but rather, give yourself permission to say, “this is when we chose to start this particular school year.” After all, you are the parents, the headmasters, the school principals, the family school board presidents….you get the idea!

Second, if it’s all too much right now, it would be very CM-ish (gentle, short lessons) to cut back on your schedule as much as you need to, and then add things in a little at a time over a few weeks. For example, you might just do copywork twice a week for now, or three times if it is the one thing that is going very well. Also, if you are using both Spelling Wisdom and another spelling curriculum, just pick one or the other. It’s tempting to think that dictation alone is “not enough” for spelling, but you won’t really know that until you try it for a semester or two, unless it’s very obvious that it is not a good fit for your child.

I have to say, until high school, the only things we did every single day were math and some sort of language arts/reading. Most of the time we did literature every day, but that’s only when we all love, love, love the book & it’s a family read-aloud. Each week, we split science and history, usually science 2x’s a week & history 3x’s a week. Things like geography, music, art, poetry we only do once a week typically.

If you lighten up a lot for now and then add things in, you’ll all enjoy learning much more. Don’t worry about “getting everything done” by year’s end.

My head is spinning just reading your list. And you have a new baby…ack! LOL

My sixth grader follows this basic schedule:

Independent Daily:

Personal Scripture Reading –  generally 1 chapter a day, 5-10 minutes

Math U See – 1 1/2 – 2 pages, 30 minutes 

Free Reading Literature – 15-30 minutes

Typing – 5 minutes right now

Independent 3x Week

ILL – 20-30 minutes (sometimes I break up the lessons)

Independent 2x Week 

Science Literature – 15-20 minutes with oral and written narrations

History Literature – 15-20 minutes with oral and written narrations

2x week with Family:

Science Lessons (M and W) – 20-30 minutes

Bible History (M and W) – 20-30 minutes

World History (T and TH) – 30 minutes 

Nature Walk – (T and TH) – 30 minutes

Daily with Family:

Scripture Study/Devotions – 20 minutes

Literature Read-Alouds – audio-books while we eat. We have listened to some wonderful stories this way. 20-30 minutes

Memory Box Reviews: Scriptures, ASL, Root Words, Math facts, Poetry, Shakespeare  15-20 minutes

3x Week with Family

Poetry

Weekly Family Subjects

Hymn Study (5 minutes) 

Handicrafts (about an hour or so) 

Nature Study with one of our walks 15-20 minutes for journaling,

Legends (during breakfast) 15 minutes

Picture Study 5-10 minutes

Composer Study 5-10 minutes to read about composer, then listen as we eat/work,

Fairy Tale during breakfast – 15-20 minutes

Friday – Shakespeare 30 minutes or so

Foreign Language Lessons (ASL) – 20 minutes

English From the Roots Up (Greek and Latin root words) – 5 minutes

Creative Art experiences – 30-60 minutes 

Then when the olders are doing their independent subjects, I do Kindergarten stuff with my littles.

Looking at what you wrote (if I am getting it all, lol):

Winston Grammar is aimed for the older grades. ILL is aimed at 4-6th grade.  So I wouldn’t do both…and ILL has writing letters, descriptive writing, grammar, picture study, dictionary skills, and more. It would be a great resource for teaching various forms of writing without needing all those other rprograms. That would totally lighten up your load. My kids are pretty much independent with it – I do have to explain a few things. And we only schedule it 3x week. So, yes, I would ditch all the writing programs and just use ILL and written narrations. It is enough.

Is your son a struggling reader? If not, why don’t you let him read those nine books and ditch the CLE reading program. He will learn so many things from great literature! Have a minumun amount of time and add to it gradually. 

Do Abeka twice a week and on the third day, add Nature Study.

Listen to literature during lunch.

The PS don’t finish their books in a scheduled year. (At least not the ones I used. lol) We get a lot done even though I have friends who think that we are doing something wrong to not be every subject for at least an hour a day…seriously, lighten up the load and enjoy it. =)

Sorry this is so long. Hope it helps, though. 😉

My 6th grader’s schedule is similar to Sue’s 6th grader’s, minus the reading time at breakfast and lunch.  We used to listen to a lot of audio books but in the car only..my dc do not seem to do as well at home.  I do plan to finish up one that we started in the car but didn’t finish and we’re going to try it here at the house, we’ll see how that goes.

I have a 6th grader as well.  Here is our general schedule:

–copywork/Spelling Wisdom/curisve (only one each day)–10 min.

–Bible/Catechism memory–10 min.

–Daily Family Studies: Mystery of History, 106 Days of Creation, Literature– 15-20 min. per subject

–Weekly or 2/3 X per week familiy subjects: Latin, drawing lesson, LDTR for Children, Family Time Fitness, Music, Bible study, hymn study, poetry, Shakespeare–These are set up so we do no more than 3-4 of these each day.–5-20 minutes depending on subject

–Math, independent reading, typing, math drills, piano are done after family subjects.  Typing and math drills are done 2x/week.  Math, reading, and piano and daily subjects.  I try to finish these before lunch, but we sometimes do piano in the afternoons.  I’ll end our family studies early if needed so we can get to math before lunch.  To be honest, we don’t get to all of these everyday.  Math is our top priority…I figure they read on their own before bed, so it’s not as essential.  

–After lunch, I try to schedule more time consuming subjects like handicrafts, art, and nature study.  We also often do larger projects in the afternoons…or just work on chores.  This year I have scheduled catch-up days for science and history for when we are short on time or want to add in extra readings or activities.  I also add in some of our other subjects here if we are short on time earlier in the week.  

For writing, we mostly do that through written narrations, so I don’t have it schedule seperately…usually we cover this with history and science.  For grammar, I “sneak” it in through Latin and copywork/dictation.  If we are pressed for time, we’ll skip some subjects for the week, or save them for a day when we have more time.

If he is able to write well and does well on a daily basis, he doesn’t really need to continue with handwriting practice. He will get that through written narrations and a Book of Mottoes that he writes in weekly. Generally, I have my kids choose a scripture, poem, or something they read that made them think duing their weekly readings and transcribe it into their Book of Mottoes. At this point my oldest practices her typing M-TH and writes in her Book of Mottoes on Friday.

We do cursive for 5 minutes daily until the child is fluent in reading and writing cursive. I actually use a timer for my reluctant and stuggling child…it makes it easier for her to transition and know that it won’t last all day. lol

The copywork involved in preparing for SW is also quite short – about 5-10 minutes of diligent work daily. Of course the time varies according to the passage, but I see no need to stretch it out for long periods of time.